Chapter 19: 19 Chapter 19 Part 2

Yu Qinjiu silently watched her withdraw her wrist. The moisture in her eyes seemed to intensify in that instant, like a pool of water reflecting the moonlight, swaying.

As if she was about to tear up again in the next second.

“Should you change the password again?” Ji Qingyou curled her fingers slightly, trying to change the subject, to pull Yu Qinjiu out of her pity for her… or perhaps guilt.

Yu Qinjiu stared at her silently. After a while, her breathing seemed a bit blocked. She tried to make a sound, but it was all drowned out by heavy nasal congestion. So she took out her phone and typed again, holding it up in front of her:

【Why change the password?】

Ji Qingyou paused for a few seconds, her fingers curling slightly. “Because I know it now.”

Yu Qinjiu didn’t say anything. She just kept holding the line of text on her phone, even moving it a little closer, her meaning clear. She asked her:

Why did she have to change the password just because she knew it?

“Okay.” Ji Qingyou tilted her head back slightly. A few strands of hair that had fallen around her forehead drifted down again. “Because it’s too simple.”

“Who would use the house number plus their name initials as the password for their own home? At least change the order of the numbers or something.”

Yu Qinjiu was stunned for a few seconds. Her slightly solemn, long lashes fell, hiding the emotions in her eyes. She typed a few words:

【That seems right. I’ll think of another one, then】

Ji Qingyou nodded. She didn’t say anything.

Yu Qinjiu glanced at her and typed another line: 【Dr. Ji, I think I feel much better. Don’t you want to go back and rest now?】

Ji Qingyou looked at her silently. A sudden stubbornness took hold of her. “I’m not going back.”

Yu Qinjiu was a little anxious. She stared at her for a while, then typed: 【Why are you acting like a kid? So stubborn】

Ji Qingyou spoke softly, slightly lowering her eyes. “Ensuring that my patient is in a sufficiently safe condition is the most important duty of a doctor.”

“You called me Dr. Ji, so how could I just abandon you?” She added this sentence to convince Yu Qinjiu.

When she finished.

Under the golden light, Yu Qinjiu’s shoulders shook slightly. They were tense for a few seconds, then finally relaxed. She leaned back. The bright light cast a hazy shadow over her full tear mole.

She took a deep breath, her gaze fixed straight ahead, as if without focus, swaying back and forth. She sat quietly for a while like this, then slightly furrowed her brow. After a moment, she struggled to articulate a few unclear words.

Ji Qingyou didn’t react immediately. She was stunned for a few seconds.

Yu Qinjiu suddenly stood up and walked into a room.

Ji Qingyou stood there dumbfounded.

Not long after, Yu Qinjiu came out carrying a small box. She sat down next to her, very close, carrying a faint rose moisturizing scent. She gently rolled up her sleeve and softly lifted her hand, the one with the red scratches.

She placed it on her own lap.

Ji Qingyou’s hand, held in hers, barely dared to move. She curled her fingers, numb and stiff, completely unable to relax.

“You really don’t need to put anything on it,” she said stiffly.

Yu Qinjiu paused, but ultimately didn’t stop her action. She took an ice pack out of the small box. Before applying it, she looked at her hesitantly.

Ji Qingyou seemed to hear her unspoken words. “It’s okay. I’m not bothered by the cold.”

Yu Qinjiu nodded lightly and carefully applied the ice pack, gently pressing it on the red marks on her palm and wrist. Her gaze was focused as if she were handling a very important task.

“It’ll fade in a couple of days anyway. It doesn’t hurt at all.” Ji Qingyou explained, her voice very soft. “It’s just a localized capillary rupture. It’ll get better once the bruising is reabsorbed.”

Yu Qinjiu listened quietly. Her lowered eyelashes trembled. After a few seconds, she sniffled. Then she took out another ice pack and gently pressed it onto Ji Qingyou’s thigh.

The cold sensation through her pants soothed the fiery sting of the injury. Ji Qingyou was slightly stunned. She didn’t understand when Yu Qinjiu had discovered the injury on her leg. She hurriedly reached out to take it.

“I can do it myself.”

But Yu Qinjiu dodged her reaching hand. Very focused, very gently, she used the ice pack to press on the injured area on her leg. She took a few deep breaths before struggling to articulate a few words.

“You were limping just now… and you kept covering this spot.”

Her articulation was still not very clear, but it was much better than the initial state.

Ji Qingyou finally breathed a true sigh of relief. She observed Yu Qinjiu’s condition. Noticing her mask was a little crooked, she carefully adjusted it for her.

Just as she was about to withdraw her hand.

“Plop——”

A crystalline teardrop landed on her finger. Heavy. Damp.

Ji Qingyou froze for a second. She reacted, leaning in worriedly. But she bumped her leg, deepening the dull pain. She couldn’t help but take a deep breath.

“Why are you crying again?” she asked.

Yu Qinjiu shook her head. She pressed her back down again, picked up her sleeve, and wiped away the tears that had just welled up. She spoke slowly. “I’m fine. Sit down first.”

Ji Qingyou sat back down, but still leaned forward slightly to observe Yu Qinjiu’s reaction. However, Yu Qinjiu kept her head down, not looking at her.

“… Yu Qinjiu.” Ji Qingyou hesitated. The line of her pursed lips softened. She finally spoke. “You can’t be this sad anymore.”

Even though she didn’t want to say this, Ji Qingyou felt she had to position herself as a doctor at this moment. “You need to control your emotions. Otherwise, you might really need to go to the hospital later.”

Yu Qinjiu paused for a few seconds, nodded slowly, and continued to ice her leg injury. After a while, Yu Qinjiu’s emotions seemed to calm down. She looked at her, a hint of hesitation in her eyes. Her usually soft voice was now strangely dry.

“Ji Qingyou, I’ve actually been wanting to ask you something…”

Ji Qingyou turned her eyes slightly. “What?”

Yu Qinjiu looked at her silently. Her voice was very, very soft in the silent room. “You told me before that you would never be a doctor. But when you were seventeen, you suddenly told me, and told Sister Qin, that you were a little interested in being a doctor.”

“I was very surprised at the time, because you were never someone who would say something unless you were sure about it. I didn’t ask then. I just thought you had suddenly made up your mind. Anyway, regardless, I supported your decision.

When I came back this time, I wasn’t very surprised that you had become a very good doctor. Seeing you buy toys for Little Jiu also felt like something you would do. It seemed like this was the path you were destined to take. Like the people who know you, who watched you grow up, would all naturally assume that you would become a very good doctor.

“But a few days ago, I suddenly realized why you wore glasses…”

As she spoke, her slightly lowered eyes lifted. Under the bright light, her eyes seemed to hold a soft, old movie.

“I started to wonder, why did you suddenly say you wanted to be a doctor when you were seventeen?”

Ji Qingyou was stunned.

For a moment, it was as if she saw, through Yu Qinjiu’s crystalline eyes, a series of images flashing by like an old movie. These images belonged to the past, to Ji Qingyou and Yu Qinjiu before 2012.

The illusion, like a special film effect, enveloped her.

The furniture around them rapidly rose and fell, becoming old and old-fashioned. Mixed with swaying, hazy light. A powerful wind tousled their hair, blowing in the sycamore seed fluff that drifted all over Nanwu City, diluting the rose scent on Yu Qinjiu.

Yu Qinjiu’s masked face became hazy. In that instant, she became younger and more carefree, gaining a touch of youthful naivety.

It was as if, in a single moment, everything suddenly returned to that seventeenth year.

Nothing had happened. All fragments were wrapped in a beautiful dream, disguised in fairy tales and castles…

Seventeen.

–

Early summer of 2011.

A powerful wind swept over the soft white clouds, bringing the muggy summer heat and the flying sycamore seed fluff into Nanwu City. During phys ed class, Class 434 and Class 435 of Nanwu High School’s second year had their lesson together.

On the playground, groups of students who hadn’t even started class yet were using table tennis paddles to commandeer spaces with their friends; silly boys, after making a three-pointer, would take off their sweaty jackets and run wildly around the court yelling; a few boys guarding the volleyball court were openly staring at the lively, energetic figure on the court.

“Ji Qingyou, what are you doing!”

Li Nanli had walked around several times before she found Ji Qingyou under a parasol tree outside the volleyball court. She was sitting upright on a wooden bench, slightly lowering her head, holding a book. Her face was covered with a washed-out dark green baseball cap. The cap wasn’t big; just the brim could cover Ji Qingyou’s entire face.

She spoke loudly, but Ji Qingyou didn’t react. She just stared at the book in her hand.

Li Nanli pouted a little. She placed the exquisitely wrapped envelope she was holding on the corner of the wooden bench and patted it. “Someone asked me to give another love letter to Yu Qinjiu.”

As she spoke, she glanced towards the volleyball court, catching sight of the most noticeable figure there. She clicked her tongue. “Yu Qinjiu’s volleyball game isn’t even over yet, and another male classmate from the neighboring class has the hots for her. What kind of charm is that? Writing a love letter between classes without even taking a break?”

“Mm.” Ji Qingyou finally spoke. She turned a page in the book.

“What book are you reading so intently?” Li Nanli leaned in to take a look, but Ji Qingyou’s hand was too quick. She couldn’t get a good look. She only saw the word “brain.” But that word alone was enough to make her frown. She lightly patted Ji Qingyou on the shoulder. “No wonder you’re the Diligent Genius Ji Qingyou. You do exam papers during regular breaks, and even when you relax during phys ed, you read such complex books.”

Li Nanli was Ji Qingyou’s deskmate, a high school girl who utterly despised studying. She got annoyed just reading a few lines, a stark contrast to Ji Qingyou, who was always immersed in books.

“Knowledge is very interesting.” As expected, Ji Qingyou gave this answer.

Li Nanli frowned deeper, as if afraid she might catch Ji Qingyou’s enthusiasm. She stood up from the wooden bench. “Anyway, here’s Yu Qinjiu’s love letter. She’s playing volleyball, so she can’t take it. Besides, you two are inseparable; it’s the same whether it’s given to you or to her.”

Ji Qingyou frowned slightly. Just as she was about to speak, Li Nanli called out to someone else and ran off. She swallowed the words she was about to say, her gaze shifting from the book to the love letter on the wooden bench.

She stared at it for a while, her gaze lingering on the words “To Classmate Yu Qinjiu” on the envelope for a few seconds, then shifting back to the signature. Her furrowed brow relaxed.

What ugly handwriting.

This thought popped into her head, and she became a little distracted. She closed the book and let her gaze drift to the familiar figure on the volleyball court.

Yu Qinjiu was definitely not the only person on the court. There were also many girls laughing cheerfully, wearing the same oversized school uniform as her. But Yu Qinjiu seemed to be able to put her own color into the drab, stuffy uniform, leaping under the sun that was the color of a pomelo.

She stood out vividly in the crowd. She rolled up her school uniform sleeves, and in the sunlight, her almost translucent white wrist raised high, hitting the oncoming volleyball.

A powerful wind blew through Yu Qinjiu’s soft, slender but strong body, sweeping her vibrant aura into Ji Qingyou’s life. The warm sunlight danced in the air. The light-colored pupils held a brilliant, infinite vitality.